9:27 Yes, you did miss something. Adar said in the previous episode when Galadriel was interrogating him that "Sauron was in the process of crafting a power, not of the flesh but over flesh"..... when Celebrimbor said those exact same words, she started to become suspicious.
@@Krusesensei if celebrimbor wasn't a well known ELF maybe. also, he would've crafted this power a long time ago if it was celebrimbor, nothing's stopping him lol.
I think Gil Galad is misunderstood by most people. He's the only one saying hey maybe these rings aren't a good idea. They wanted to give him a crown and he turned it down because he knew having one person with all that power could be bad.
Fully agree! To add on, he said Galadriel would bring back Sauron in her quest to destroy him. He put his people first when deciding whether to move all elves to Valinor vs chancing their fate on Celimbrinbor. He also distrusted Halbrand when Celimbrinbor brought fourth his Crown idea.
@@maxpower7113 yeah, I mean if you actually pay attention to what he’s saying most of the season, he’s basically correct in every count for the most part
I’ve been a supporter and defender of this show since it was announced. In my opinion, anything that brings more people to Tolkien’s work is a good thing. I grew up on the books and the animated adaptations that my parents had. Loved the live action movies. There are big differences among all of them, so the fact this show makes changes, too, doesn’t bother me at all. It’s fun and interesting to see other artists’ takes on Tolkien, getting a glimpse of what his work says to them. I made a decision to go into Rings Of Power looking for things to enjoy, instead of being a nit picker and a hater. And there is a lot here to enjoy! There are going to be many people for whom ROP is their first exposure to Tolkien’s world. It’s my duty as a graybeard to welcome them, not scold them. And to share with them the source of their new fandom, all that has come before. As for this episode: the moment Halbrand stepped into Celebrimbor’s workshop, I knew. I had strong suspicions before that, but thanks to my knowledge of the lore, and how the elven rings were made there, that moment in the show was confirmation. I actually gave a little evil laugh. Thanks for supporting this show, Imon. I’ll be here with you for season 2.
great comment! I agree, same thoughts here! 😊 The most important thing is: it's opening the universe to new fans, just like I happened to become after watching the movies as a child (and so many other people) even though they also lack some points in fidelity, we didn't care and that's what excited us to search the source material.
You are not some sort of superior person characterizing critics of ROP as "nit picker and a hater" online. Reflects poorly upon you, it's just name calling to put human beings into a BAD box. There are well worded and reasoned criticisms of ROP that bring into question the philosophical agenda of the mythos being portrayed in the show and point to it being an attempt to very fundamentally retcon Tolkien's work. They are not lesser people than you for pointing out what they perceive a long bad intentioned agenda to degrade Tolkien. It's documented and verifiable that ardent supporters of Communism wrote the 'racist, sexist, misogynist' smears about Tolkien and his fans all the way back in the 1960's trying to erase Tolkien from cultural popularity and perhaps remove it from publishable status entirely, an early iteration of a Woke cancel culture attempt. This is the latest attempt in the view of many informed Tolkien fans to degrade Tolkien's work. Not erasing or cancelling his work from fashionable acceptability, but now with this new strategy, retconning it's message and philosophical core tenants. That's not a perspective accurately described by the "hater" name calling you and those defending the show engage in regularly. You can be more accurately described as the haters yourselves IMO. How you like that? You're on the wrong side of history in the BAD person box.
I'd agree that anything which exposes new fans to Tolkien's works is a good thing. Particularly something like this which may prompt a bunch of casuals to get into his more lore heavy stuff like the Silmarillion. That being said, I haven't watched this show, only a few clips, and I don't plan to. It has less to do with them changing so much, and more to do with them cramming so much movie lore into these stories. They don't need Gandalf to appear. They don't need Galadriel to be a warrior woman. This world is STUFFED with history and lore. They could've so easily just added new versions of characters instead, have the Wizard be one of the Blue Wizards, etc, but didn't because they want to appeal to the masses who know the films, which bothers me, its lazy storytelling, which I cannot abide. In a perfect world they'd have access to the Silmarillion rights and could just tell First Age stories, do a new one each season. God that would be cool. Do a season on The Noldor vs. Melkor in the early days. Do a season on Beren and Luthien. Do a season on The Children of Hurin. The War of Wrath. It'll never happen, but that's the dream lol
@@KS-xk2so I'm always baffled by people who haven't watched the show speaking so confidently about what they think the show changed. The Stranger isn't Gandalf. He's going east into Rhun this season, and all indicators are that he'll turn out to be a Blue Wizard. Galadriel WAS a warrior woman in at least some of Tolkien's self-retcons of her backstory. Much of what's shown of her in this show is consistent with those bits of not-really-canon. Rings Of Power is being made with the blessing of the Tolkien Estate, who maintain veto power over everything in it. They also have the ability to greenlight, on a case by case basis, uses of the IP from outside LOTR and its Appendices. Which is why it looks like we're getting so much more lore in Season 2 lifted directly from The Silmarillion I think the Second Age is a great choice for an adaptation precisely because it is so loosely defined. The stories from the First Age would perform better as stand alone films than as long-form episodic television IMO. But if you want to improve the chances of them being made, it's in your interest to support projects like ROP or War Of The Rohirrim. It's the success of projects like this that can convince both the Estate and studios that more adaptations are a safe financial bet. If ROP, WotR, and whatever Peter Jackson & Andy Serkis are cooking fail, the perfect world you described will be farther away, not clsoer.
@@BoboftheOldeWays I've read synopsis and reviews of the episodes, so while I haven't watched them, I thought I had a decent handle on the plot. Wasn't aware the Stranger was a Blue Wizard... I feel like the moths symbolism pointed to Gandalf, not to mention I think its mentioned in the Hobbit movies Gandalf was also in Rhun at some point.... everything I read seemed to indicate he was Gandalf, if not so, thats great. As for Galadriel.... the amount of Tolkiens writing that supports her being a sword weilding warrior woman is pretty small and hazy when compared to the volumes saying she isn't. She's a magic user. I just think they could've used any one of a dozen other characters and it would've made a lot more sense. I'm fine with a warrior woman Elf main character.... just make one up, don't completely re-invent a well known and defined character. Hell, have it be Celebrian, we know almost nothing about her, and you could eventually toss in some romance shit with Elrond too. I do agree Second Age allows for them to make more stuff up, due to a lack of stories from that era, I just wish they'd use that power more, rather than making changes to established characters instead. Completely disagree about the First Age though. Those stories are so lore heavy that making films about them would be near impossible. Not to mention the Silmarillion isn't really a complete "story" anyways, it reads like a textbook almost, a bunch of specific tales losely woven together, which I think translates much better to a variety of seasons of TV.
One of Sauron’s many names is The Great Deceiver, and it is said the best lies have some truth in them, well he lived up to that title. Not once did he truly lie to any of them, and yet he manipulated them so perfectly by making all those who helped them think it was their idea. Damn Charlie Vickers was perfectly cast. As for the scenes with The Stranger and Nori, I did not think I was gonna cry this episode, but when Nori said goodbye to her family and then when Poppy ran up to her and hugged her I couldn’t help but cry. What truly is upsetting is that rather than shoot seasons 1, 2, and 3 back to back to back Amazon Studios only JUST started production on season 2 as of this video being released. And the show runners have said it will be YEARS before we see the next season. So while I’m still going to watch season 2 I’m afraid that most people will completely forget about the show by then.
You have saurons origins confused. Sauron never began as a man. He was one of the Ainur (maiar and valar) and helped Eru to create all of reality. He is older than creation itself. Nor is Gandalf a descendant of anyone. He himself is a Maia spirit named Olorin who also has existed longer than creation itself.
Actually Sauron is a Maia too, which explains why the sisters confused the two. Though the Wizards' powers are sealed by more feeble flesh (which means, unlike Sauron, they can be permanently killed through mundane means without divine intervention), they are technically equal in status and relative power.
I'm pretty sure our friendly wizard saying "always follow your nose" is meant to confirm to the audience that this is Gandalf. In The Fellowship of the Ring, while entering the caves to the dwarven city, he says the same exact thing to Merry.
I think he might be one of the 2 blue wizzards cause in tolkiens work there were 5 in total and the blue ones arrived earlier in Middle-Earth than the rest. The other 3 only arrived there in the 3rd age and not the 2nd one.
@@firecat4529 Personally I don't believe so since that quote is clearly referencing Gandalf in the first film (he used the same exact line). His adventures this season also explain why he has such a fondness for the hobbits in LOTR. Not to mentiom Amazon is merely adapting the appendices they bought the rights to. Things won't be exactly the same as in the books, and that's okay. This show is their interpretation of the story and world. Besides relatively speaking, there's not that much info on the blue wizards to work with. However there's enough on Gandalf The Grey, plus his name will attract additional audiences.
Best reaction. LOTR saved my life too. It came out when I was college and I felt alone and scared in the world. Both my kids have Tolkien inspired names
I can't wait to see Rhun and Harad and all those places we didn't get to see in LOTR. I think those three mystics came from a cult in the east. If the wizard is Gandalf I'll accept it, but I hope he's a blue wizard because we've never seen them before.
DeathSwitch If you want to understand the "hate", there are a ton of great (and sometimes funny) videos explaining how bad is this show, all the flaws, all the things that doesn't makes any sense. I think that if you watch them, you will understand why so much people say this is an awful show and an insult to Tolkien work...
@@Laurent_08 Exactly. Unfortunately most people who advocate for this series are doing so on ideological grounds, and therefore will not even entertain the possibility of reasonable and justifiable criticism. Shame.
This wasnt an invitation to reiterate your opinions, I clearly said ive seen the hate online, I just disagree with a lot of the critisms. To say its based on ideological grounds is laughable, i could say the same about your critisms but it doesnt change your opinion! Why do i have to justify why i like something to people who clearly dont want to know why, they just want to tell me that my subjective opinion on a series is wrong. Get some perspective, lads.
I'm so glad that a big fan of Tolkien's works like you genuinely liked the show despite all the hate online. Gotta confess I also got a little emotional haha
I'm so glad you enjoyed this, I really enjoyed it too and loved all of the characters! I'm very invested in this story and I can't wait for the next season!
I genuinely could not agree more. They absolutely captured the essence of Tolkien with this show. Considering they lacked the rights to large parts of the legendarium makes it even more of a triumph. edit: I do personally hope that the Wizard isn't Gandalf, although i think thats where its leaning. Just a little too on the nose. Would much rather he be one of the two Blue Wizards since we know they existed and thats about it.
i enjoyed watching this with you and i’m happy you loved it! i’m not super well-versed with the books but i’ve seen the movies, including the hobbit series and i just love the characters and the overall theme of lotr. this show is so well done, so cinematic, and it’s given us more characters and relationships to be invested in. i also enjoyed the pacing and how they took the time to tell the story that will bring it forward to future seasons!
Oh that's fun! Your experience with the LOTR movies is similar to mine in that I only saw ROTK in theatres too. Except I was perfectly allowed to watch them but I was 11 in 2003 so when FOTR came out I was 9 so I think probably fair I wasn't carted off to the cinema to see it then. But my dad saw the trailer for Two Towers and saw the rohirrim charging down the hill to Helms Deep and was like dang we should watch that. He got the FOTR VHS and we watched it and I didn't particularly enjoy myself I was a bit scared. Not sure what happened between then and TTT coming to VHS as i remember being excited that we were going to get it. In hindsight there was a lot I didn't understand about the stories..but I did develop my first crush ever on Legolas (the absolute mental journey of this 🤣🤣) and became generally obsessed with the movies and would go on the official websites and I think it is the first time I consciously remember being like..super into a particular thing and all the aspects of it because I just loved it. Feelings which have become a big part of my personality, it was always what I was like. I still am. Love a fandom! 🤣. I saw ROTK 5 times with all different friends as they went for their first time. It's still my record for most times seeing one film in the cinema 😂. My dad and I watched Two Towers together every friday for weeks and weeks. All the behind the scenes stuff and watching all different things with all the actors (it led me to watching LOST which i love, also Hidalgo, I still get a buzz seeing a LOTR actor in something) was just my life for so long. The build up to the first Hobbit film coming out was similar, I remember going into university after waking up at 3am to watch the live stream of the new zealand premiere 😂. I could probably still recite the ROTK theatrical trailer to you I watched it a ridiculous number of times. I'm so pleased I grew to love this show. I went in with interest and an open mind but happy to be fairly indifferent but I'm definitely invested!
Personally I enjoyed ROP much more than HOTD. This show has more room for improvement, admittedly HOTD is more polished. But this show got me much more invested in the characters and feels like, if they can fix the dialogue and stop the cheap effects, it can become a 10/10 show.
I agree. The dynamic between Galadriel and Sauron was just masterful and makes the scene where Frodo offers her the ring so much more meaningful for me. She had overcome this temptation before and what a temptation. The fact that Galadriel and Elrond never even spoke the words of what her mistake was spoke so much to their long, long, long and abiding friendship. Elrond's loyalty to his friends was so heavily focused on int his season and I loved that as well. So much amazing stuff being set up for the upcoming seasons. Was happy to watch this with you.
Loved your reaction so much! I’m right there with you, so many emotions!! Loved this ep, loved this seasons and couldn’t be more excited for the future ones! The are absolutely doing JRRT justice. ❤
I think one of the most fascinating theories I've heard is that he's not *actually* Sauron. That he is a human and his story of finding that sigil is real, but when Adar "killed" Sauron he put his essence in the sigil as like a proto ring, to which he could puppet the person holding the Sigil and take over when needed. That's why it was so easy (Despite Sauron being called the Great Deceiver) for him to fit in and act like a human. And I think he's biding his time until all of the rings are forged.
Did you not put it together?....."Always follow your nose!".......where else was that Line said?........and yeah! I'm with you! Can't wait till season 2. I am truly invested now.....
"When Thangorodrim was broken and Morgoth overthrown, Sauron put on his fair hue again and did obeisance to Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, and abjured all his evil deeds. And some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear, being dismayed by the fall of Morgoth and the great wrath of the Lords of the West. But it was not within the power of Eönwë to pardon those of his own order, and he commanded Sauron to return to Aman and there receive the judgement of Manwë. Then Sauron was ashamed, and he was unwilling to return in humiliation and to receive from the Valar a sentence, it might be, of long servitude in proof of his good faith; for under Morgoth his power had been great. Therefore when Eönwë departed he hid himself in Middle-earth; and he fell back into evil, for the bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him were very strong."
I'm glad you liked it, this show gets so much hate. I thought I will hate it, as I really don't like the Hobbit movies (I love the books) but to my surprise I didn't. It won't be my favorite and obviously not "canon" material, but feels like an adaptation of myths and legends, not a novel (and the Silmarillion are stories, and legends even on Middle earth). There are a long list of things I don't like in it, but an equally long list of thing I really did. From imagery, production design, set design, story driving. I loved the slow pace of the season. I don't want to list what I did not like, the show gets enough flak as it is :D I wantched the finale with friends. When the Witches named the Stranger Sauron, some us was happy some us not, but OK. But when Halbrand started to talk to Celebrimbor we all just nod, amost in unison. It's him. The Annatar. When he said "Call it a gift" was only the cherry on top. :) I liked when Galadriel said he convinced Queen Míriel to help, for me that showed that in some way she didn't even realized how it was her who pushed the idea. Also the whole help with Celebrimbor shown Sauron had the power of persuasion giving people ideas and later they remembered it as their own. I think in the next season he will be back full as Annatar and helps Celebrimbor make the 7 and 9 since it was Elrond and Galadriel who did not trust him, but Celebrimbor and the elven smiths of Eregion did.
Loved your reaction when Sauron said he has many names he's not exaggerating his original name is Mairon when he was good and he's one of the maiar Gandalf"s race and he's a shapeshifter like he turned into a werewolf a vampire and a snake and in The Simarilian his name is Annatar Lord of Gifts in this age when he's in this disguise
great reaction. Enjoyed the season too and can't wait for next season. We know it'll be 5 seasons so it sounds like they have a good plan to contain the story within all of that :)
That line the wizard said toward the end "always follow your nose" is 100% confirmation it is Gandalf. He says the exact thing in the Fellowship of the Ring. I absolutely loved this show, had tears in my eyes at every turn. I will absolutely look forward to watching your reaction to the 2nd season!
Sorry I´m late to the party, just discovered your review and am absolutely loving it!!!!!! 1.) I 100% agree with you, the writing, acting, cinematography, score and costumes are next level and the fact that they got so much of the lore right is incredible! 2.) Galadriel's journey & temptation were the best thing honestly, connects perfectly with the Mirror scene in Fellowship of the Ring & The Silmarillion 3.) Sauron is a Maiar (angelic beings only second in power to the Valar/gods) and could change his form at will for the longest while, Adar "killing" Sauron would mean he lost his current shape and his spirit staying shapeless until he had enough strength to form a new body. After Morgoth got defeated Sauron did feel remorse for his actions but was too chicken to go back to be judged by the gods so he decided to first clean-up the mess he'd made- we know how that went south.
Amazing reaction as usually Imon, really loving your content lately! I'm excited they introduced Rhûn in this episode. Thats the land those human soldiers in gold armour from Two Towers came from. I'm a huge Tolkien fan, and I've had to explain to haters that this ending actually doesn't stray from the canon, and is actually a really elegant way to do it.
@@nurfnurder Dude, it's an adaption, adaptions change things, if I wanted to experience the story exactly as it was, I'd just read the Silmarillion or The History of Middle Earth. The main story beats will still occur, just in different order. The events of the 7 and 9 are likely to still happen in the same way - but at least the show contextualises why the 1st of the 7 was given to Durin III prior to the events later at Eregion which isn't explained in any detail in the books. The Jackson trilogy changed LOADS from the original book. Stop looking for an excuse to piss and moan and just read The Fall of Gondolin or something to calm down.
@@enoshima6699 Seeing as Numenorians are the only people known to be actively religious in Arda, are an ocean fairing people and that their very island was created by Ossë, a maia of the sea associated with Ulmo, the Valar of the seas - yes that is very likely that's a view they would have. And in Akallabêth it does show the gradual corruption and envy in the Numenorians towards the Elves. Specifically, the Kings Men during the reign of Tar-Ancalimon.
I really loved this show! Watching you innocently be pleased at Halbrand helping along with the mithril was entertaining. I'm a big fan of LOTR but don't know much about the lore outside of those stories except a few bits and I've been learning as this show goes on which has been fun. I had learned over the past few weeks that he appears in disguise and lends his skill to the forging of the elven rings, so the second I saw him go and talk to Celebrimbor I was like..well shit it's definitely him 🤣🤣. And yes the "not of the flesh but over flesh" was said by Adar in a previous episode when he was explaining to Galadriel what Sauron was seeking. I would have probably forgotten it but it was in the recap at the start 🤣. I haven't fully committed to The Stranger being Gandalf yer but if he's not they're doing a hell of a lot to reference him. "Always follow your nose", a direct quote, "adventures should be shared/i'm looking for someone to share in an adventure", the moth motif, fire powers, being friends with the halflings. One friend had a fun theory about it being Saruman as he apparently actively chose good and Gandalf did look up to him pre-evil turn so could have taken on his advice. The couple of friends I have that are super into the wider lore REALLY ove this show and I've had some fun theory conversations with them. Plus some other reactions I've watched have people who know more about the lore and are enjoying it a lot. People coming out here like "Tolkien fans all actually hate it", I've yet to see a somewhat level headed comment about disliking it that doesn't just turn into "it's all complete irredeemable trash and everything about it was awful and the writers are shit". I wish these people well in going out and making something better. My friends have had the odd nit pick and so have I but people need to understand and adaptation of written word (with limits due to legal rights issues) isn't going to be spot on and things are different visually. Personally as I say, I've loved it. As a LOTR fan, just enough recognisable stuff to make me feel involved but enough new stuff for a great intriguing story that I can keep guessing about!
There are countless videos here on youtube by level headed Tolkien fans that completely deconstruct how bad the writing is, how the script and editing make no sense, how they have completely butchered Tolkien's characters, lore, and the spirit of his works. Any level headed, true, Tolkien fan can understand these arguments against the show. Maybe widen your horizons and actually listen to those arguments.
@@nurfnurder weird because I've seen a lot of Tolkien fans really enjoying the show. I don't really want to sit and watch youtube essays about why I shouldn't like a thing I already enjoy. I'm also not here for this "true" Tolkien fan gatekeeping shit. If you're a fan you're a fan. He could have hated the LOTR movies we don't know 😂. We don't get to decide what's good enough for him.
@@JeM130177 "I've yet to see a somewhat level headed comment about disliking it that doesn't just turn into "it's all complete irredeemable trash and everything about it was awful and the writers are shit"" Why say this if you aren't even trying to look or understand then? We know a lot about Tolkien and what he would have liked or disliked through his countless letters and interviews. He decided for himself what is good enough from him, and we can infer from his words what was good enough for him. It's weird how anyone who agrees with you you have no problem with, yet anyone who disagrees is an elitist gatekeeper. Kind of a one sided mentality when you think about it. Have you actually tried listening to and understanding the arguments of people who dislike the show? Well that's a no since "I don't really want to sit and watch youtube essays about why I shouldn't like a thing I already enjoy." But if you aren't willing to listen then maybe the problem is with you and not the "haters". If you haven't listened to any opposing view how can you have any hope to argue against those views and points? And how can you even know what those arguments are and then describe them as descending into "this show is trash and the writers are shit"?
@@nurfnurder i didn't say I've not heard anything at all. I see plenty of criticism along with praise from people who have generally enjoyed it, but those out here just being purely negative haven't been very nuanced yet from my experience. I'm glad they're out there. I have my own issues with the show. But on a lot of reaction videos like this any negativity I see just dissolves into endless hatred. It's hard to take people seriously when they're just berating you for liking something that is apparently so objectively terrible. I've certainly not seen anyone who largely disliked it sit and consider the argument of it actually having some good points. There's a difference between engaging in a little discussion and devoting my time to sit for an hour listening to someone i know I'm not going to enjoy watching because I mainly disagree with their view. Which is clearly not how everyone works because plenty of people continued to watch this show despite it being apparently terrible, so they could continue to tell us how terrible it is. Also gate keeping has nothing to do with whether you agree with me. If someone came here and said "true fans will know this show is great and not dislike it" I would disagree with that too. I hate anyone dictating what is and isn't a fan. Which is apparently whether they agree with you or not.
@@JeM130177 You are using the word "hate" alot. Since you have time to accuse people of hatred, can you show me some proof of this hatred? Bear in mind there is a massive difference between dislike, disgust, criticism and disappointment, and actual hatred. So where is this hatred you seem to think is rife? People didnt continue to watch this terrible show just so they could tell others how terrible it is, they continued to watch in the hope that it would actually be good and true to Tolkien. You seem to assume a lot about the people who disagree with you. Those who dislike the show would have been its biggest fans had the producers done an actual good job. Anyway, I'll call your bluff. Good things about the show... 1. The visuals are beautiful 2. The soundtrack in places is brilliant. 3. The acting of Eleanore and Durin was great. Bad things... 1. They completely butchered Galadriel as a character. Galadriel's might is in her prowess to be wise, intelligent and far-seeing. She is the epitome of gracefulness. She never needed a sword or to be a warrior. infact Tolkien writes most of the people's of Arda to be very much against war, and the only instance that Tolkien ever implies Galadriel picking up a sword is in the Kinslaying. She isn't a warrior. In this show she only a warrior, she is brash, arrogant, rude and abrasive, doesn't care for the lives of her kin, genocidal, never listens to advice, and completely dislikeable. They have also somehow made her responsible for the ascendancy of Sauron. 2. The Harfoots are sociopaths. Many times we see them stating they never leave a person behind, yet they take every and any opportunity to put people at the back of the train to be left behind. They laugh about the deaths of their kin while reminiscing. 3. The scriptwriting is seriously poor. In one episode we have Elendil in anguish because his son Isildur is thought dead from being crushed in the burning building... Yet we know Isildur to be the one to cut the ring from Sauron's finger: a completely useless mystery box. Again, Galadriel states that her husband Celeborn is dead. Yet we know Arwen from LotR to be a direct descendant of both of them. Another completely useless mystery box. Expect Celeborn to make an appearance in the next seasons. I can give many many more examples of poor scriptwriting (such as the stupid and illogical way Mordor is made; the general outlandish lexicon of the people "okay" is not a word that would have been used; Galadriel jumping off the boat to Valinor and thinking she can swim thousands of miles back to Middle Earth, only to coincidentally be saved by a boat that just happened to have Sauron/Halbrand on it just because the plot needs it), but I'll leave that there. 4. The showrunners themselves have pretty much stated they have no respect for Tolkien. They said it seemed "only natural to them that a fantasy tale should reflect the world we live in today"... a fantasy... Why they felt it was appropriate for a fantasy to reflect the real world (and not the author's original spirit and intent) is beyond me. Anybody can see that what this really means is "we think Tolkien is wrong and we need to update it and make it better." That is not respect, that is disrespect. Anybody with an ounce of respect for Tolkien and the spirit of his works would be annoyed at this. Can you debate my points? You've been very vocal with me thus far, or will you close down this discussion now that I have made a few valid and logical points?
Im late to this reaction, but damn, this was really entertaining. They totally DID do justice to Tolkien's world. Honestly, your reaction was realllllly great, emotional and at times hilarious lol. It sucks that the next season will likely take so long, but I cant wait. Thanks for the great time
I can't wait for next season. I just hope it doesn't come back on at the same time as GOT HOTD. It needs its own slot on the calendar and I hope its Sunday night. That would be way better.
I think the wizzatd might be one of the 2 blue wizzards cause in tolkiens work there were 5 Istari in total and the blue ones arrived earlier in Middle-Earth than the rest. The other 3 only arrived there in the 3rd age and not in the 2nd one, as far as I know.
Since they are compressing time-lines, I think this episode all but said he is Gandalf. But if not, that's fine too. I'm not hung up on exact details, just a good adaptation. I'm totally loving the show.
There are some who dislike the slow pace of this series.. but it's actually very true to Tolkien storytelling. And the casting in this series was top tier!
Although Rings of Power is flawed, I enjoyed it. It was ambitious & faced an impossible task of satisfying diehard Tolkien fans while trying to win new fans with a fresh persoective & “reimagining” of the events surrounding the Rings of Power. It’s always fun to journey into Middle-Earth. The story was entertaining & it was visually beautiful. Bear McCreary composed an amazing soundtrack for it too which really embellished the show. Many of the actors were incredible too. I liked the actor Ismael. CRuz Cordova who played Arondir & Robert Aramayo as Elrond. Joseph Mawle who played Ben Stark in GoT really shone as a tormented ex-Elf/Father Uruk & Charlie Vickers really gave Sauron multiple dimensions - he wasn’t just a trite villain but charming. Remember Sauron was a benevolent being once, a powerful Maiar or “Angelic” being at the start who wanted order bit came to be deceptive along with his charm & charisma on his oath to evil & quest for power & domination. Owain Arthur absolutelt crushed it as the fierce but loyal & charming dwarf Prince Durin IV. He stole scenes & his banter with Erond harkened Gimli & Legolas. Your reaction was great as always Imom. You were very perceptive with Halbrand/Sauron. I think at this time his intentions were more benevolent if you will & he believed his intentions & ends were justified & good. He wanted order but his ends didn’t justify his means. The actir Charlie abickers really showed Sauron’s charm & seductiveness even though his ultimate quest was power & dominion over all. I think he saw himself as justified. Many rectors don’t know all the histories & lote of Middle-Earth & Tolkien’s “legendarium.” If one can read the books & watch all the movies & get a better grasp of the creation legends & all the backgrounds, histories & lore of all the places, people & things you gain a greater understanding on it all. E.G. what happened to Numenor. How Gondor & Rohan were formed. Why were the Elves leaving? What happened to Morgoth. What was Mairon’s or Annatars or Sauron’s “bio?” How did he become Sauron. Why were the wizards sent. Etc. There is so much deepness & richness to it. I am no expert but pretty well versed. Obviously when you have a better grasp of all the histories & lore of Tolkien’s incredible world, these stories gain so much more depth as you know about the history behind things, motivations, etc Excited for Season 2 which hopefully comes much sooner than later. Be safe & hope all is good on your end as always. Peace & cheers!😉👍
I love seeing the moment of Galadriel relinquishing the knife. It was such a huge moment of just letting go of her vengeance and all the things that drove her in this first season.
And yeah he manipulates the elves to create the rings of power specifically Celebrimbor but he begins to suspect him so he created the elven rings behind his back so Sauron couldn't corrupt them like the rest
I enjoyed your reaction to episode 8 - Alloyed. I thought it wrapped things up pretty well and I enjoy the characters. It will probably be a couple of years before season 2.
I'd be very interested in seeing you watch some lore videos about the 2nd age, the rings of power, Galadriel's, Sauron's and definitely Morgoth's story as a comparison to the show, to see what you like and dislike about both. I think the show is ok but I still find what Tolkien wrote as more engaging for me personally. Sadly the Tolkien Estate didn't give Amazon the rights to the Simarillion, to make the show more accurate to the books. I'd also love to see a show about the 1st age and the fights with Morgoth and the creation of Arda, Tolkiens world.
Its hard when you've read the books, know the lore, and can see how badly they butchered it. :/ though if people love the show more power to them. But for the target audience they marketed it to (Tolkien fans) it was just... bad. The writing was just so bad. Visuals were beautiful. But good lord, it was nothing close to what Tolkien had envisioned and written so clearly.
@@danemiller4852 i dont see how this is relevant . none of us is tolken . so how come we know if this is not even making him happy . i think the show done justice to the legacy . and added on it which is LIFE about , imagin taking a copy past of the book . for the ppl who read them it would be awaful and just plain . spoiled . btw tolken him self is inspired by some ohter . whom he was insipredby .
@@mekadragon86 Tolkien wrote into his work the 'Cosmic Hunt'; the very first story of them all. The One Ring itself is an adaptation of an ancient Greek parable, the dragons, the hero's journey, etc... His great work is all a very grand and masterfully executed weaving together of ancient mythical metaphysics which we rest our ethos, our ethical axioms upon. That from which we derive our Western cultural notions of good and evil. And it is done with the very highest level of writing skill to make a single coherent mythos out of all that is incorporated. ROP is absolutely antithetical to that work Tolkien invested so much labor and talent into creating. It is by stark contrast serving a johnny-come-lately jaded cynical postmodernist philosophy that there is no such thing as definable ethos or even any particular deontological morality at all. Relativism, shades of grey, power and ends justify the means consequentialism and of course, allegorical current day identity politics are shot through ROP. It is an assault and pollution of the legacy of one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time by FAR lesser talents with actual bad intentions IMO and the opinions of many Tolkien fans who recognize the WRONGNESS of ROP being associated with Tolkien's work. To many of us who have read the 'racist, fascist, misogynist' descriptions of Tolkien by critics (which goes back to the 1960s FYI) this has been a bad intentioned goal of people looking to disrupt, dismantle, destroy cultural moral frameworks of the West for a long time and we see ROP with that context added to our perspective. You will not know good from evil and make choices based in an applicable moral framework to live a better life in a better world following the philosophical direction ascribed by ROP. It's not a story in the mythology promoting virtues as Tolkien would have written it, the execution is very substandard in comparison too so NO, critics of ROP do not agree that it does his legacy justice.
This is an amazing adaptation. But people have to understand that the Tolkien estate didn’t not give permission nor sell the rights to the Silmarillion to Amazon. What we have seen here is from the appendices of the books of The lord of the rings. So this is a limited presentation of, not the Silmarillion but a rendition of Tolkien’s limited presentation which was available to the story writers. Amazon should be recognized for the story they were able to craft. If people are upset because the show wasn’t true to the Silmarillion blame the Tolkien estate, not Amazon. Imagine how amazing the story could have been if they had been allowed the rights to the book.
How is this channel so good? Somehow you can look at this show and mine it for every drop of LOTR nostalgia and wholesome messages, instead of focusing on how derivative and out of character it is.
Art is subjective, why can't we all be friends instead ? Some people spit some hate and call it constructive criticism. Others try to give their opinions and try to explain them, they are called hater. It is sad to live in a cancel culture where this line is blurred. I'm used to get out of the theaters and talk with people about what they did and din't enjoy about a movie. That's why I watch reaction channels. But when a fanbase is so big, if they don't like something, some feel betrayed and conversation becomes toxic. It's : "don't talk to me if liked it." or "don't talk to me if you didn't like it".
Wow, somebody actually watched this. I can't stand adaptations, even the Peter Jackson trilogy. Nothing to worry about though with The Rings of Power, as it's completely original and nothing to do with Tolkien. For those saying that it's a good entry to Tolkien, just read the books.
You're reaction is totally same to my reaction. You're a very open minded person. I really enjoyed your reaction. 👏👏👏❤ Any real Author's purpose is give some msg to the society through their books. If Tolkien that kind of person he'll be happy. Books fans think 100% world people know about Tolkien and his books but real word it isn't 1% people know things and 99% most of people don't know. Because this time period is a digital era not pages era. Tolkien estate destroyed LOTR not Amazon. I actually don't care about lore anymore. If they ( Amazon ) don't have full rights ( Second Age details ) how they create something according to the lore and why people hope 100% lore. Are they silly? that's my question. This isn't Amazon/ HBO/Netflix problem. This is Tolkien estate problem. Time has come give them rights then they'll create this according to the lore. I think they don't have full rights, they create similar story lore and non lore. PJ had full rights and he did it according to the lore. The Problem is Tolkien Estate's old ideas. They dumped HBO, Netflix and PJ don't forget about that. My English not perfect sorry for that 😢
"I actually don't care about lore anymore" then you have no interest in Tolkien, the books are the lore after all and no one expected 100% faithfulness to the lore, 15% would have been nice though.
Great reaction and beautiful story you told about your connection with LOTR. Awesome show, incredible characters, visuales, storylines and details, its superb! Thanks for keeping that positive attitude and sharing it with everyone. We are so many more people who love this than those who force themselves to hate.
The hate is coming from you and the Wokes very deliberately disrupt, dismantle, destroying Western culture and values of course. It's an awful vandalism aimed at mutilating, sterilizing, and murdering children because there are too many people on the planet this Woke cultural taint assault. Congratulations on being on the wrong side of history, harming the innocent and supporting the poisoning of young minds with evil Woke hate the OTHER agendas propagandized through media. Where is Galadriel's husband? Where is her daughter? Oh, that's right, she needs to touch the darkness by taking her brother's phallic object out into battle and committing a genocide against those who have wronged her in revenge. How silly that a family, a land living in peace, defense against aggression could get in the way of her awesome righteous anger and revenge quest taking the masculine role from the ineffectual conniving men. So very heroic, what a great role model for all the little girls. Remember you must first touch the darkness so you can know right from wrong little ones. Trash. Socially destructive identity politics hate mongering trash. You are on the wrong side.
Don't read if you enjoy the show. 😅 Yeah I just can't get behind the show. It's so bad. But that's just my opinion. I just know what it could have been and what the characters were like and most of them just feel like a downgrade. Absolutely nothing to do with the actors just the writing. It's just not good and so bland. But again it's my opinion and I won't crucify people for liking it. Although the only thing I hate is how they downgraded galadriel so damn much. And here she acts like a know nothing little child whereas in actuality at this time she had already been alive for thousands of years. Personally I really hope you don't look up anymore on any of these characters because you'll be disappointed.
I hope it's not Gandalf, Gandalf AND Hobbits in the 2nd age is too big a slap in the face, Gandalf didn't arrive on middle earth until over 1000yrs into the 3rd age - The only Wizards in the 2nd age were the Mysterious blue Wizards and with this show we can finally learn more about them. If they throw away this chance in favour of Gandalf I'd be pissed.
Sorry, but we who did not agree with the values propagandized by this show absolutely did 'get it' from our own perspective informed by differences with your interpretation of Amazon Studios inventions to 'update for a modern audience' the original themes of the life's work of a very great author that IMO are being fundamentally philosophically retconned. These are not the same values in the same philosophical framework Tolkien ascribed to. Tolkien wrote stories from the perspective of a morality aimed at making the world a better place. IMO Amazon Studios very much deliberately wants to make the world worse for the majority of people alive for the aggrandizement, control, and benefit; to justify the empowerment the 'stakeholder' elite minority who are going to control everyone's choices since they are so very superior to the majority. Sorry you don't 'get it' from your perspective that the majority of Tolkien fans who absolutely are critical of these postmodernist elitist Vanguard Social Constructionist agendas have a legitimate gripe with postmodernist propaganda in a Tolkien skin suit Imon. Amazon Studios are not good people from the perspective of anything like Tolkien's moral framework, they don't want equality among happy successful citizens in charge of their own destiny and certainly do not want happy intact families raising healthy children. They do not, the postmodernists do not want goodness for the majority, they want disfunction and weakness, people unable to live outside obedience to the will of their supposed betters. The 'Hate' displayed around criticism of this show is about universally directed AT the critics by the show's defenders also from what I can tell too. Bad take Imon. Very dishonest characterization of this dynamic. Obviously I won't be supporting you as long as you choose to align with postmodernist 'disrupt, dismantle, destroy the nuclear family' evil. Hope you wake up one day and realize what this type of propaganda really is.
Naysayers/ loud majority are pretty much just upset about the changes to the source material. Pointing out that this is not Tolkien, it’s Amazon’s cash grab, and the very strange mindset of “if anyone dislikes rings of power then they’re sexist or racist period end of discussion, they’re opinions are not valid.” A) No hate on Galadriel at all, it would have been awesome to have her as the lead… this wasn’t Galadriel though. The real Galadriel is much more awesome than whoever this was in the show. B) The entire point of LOTR was a group of individuals from different backgrounds coming together and forming a FELLOWSHIP, it was already about our world.. this show just forced all the political and racial divide for whatever reason.. the real story that Tolkien created was much more diverse, much more socially aware and it was in a way that never divided anyone.. not like this show has done. They didn’t do Tolkien justice. I wish they did.
Everyone can like what they want, but it's not because someone don't like it that he's negative and not objective. There are a ton of great videos on youtube (some of them with very ironic titles), very interesting and objective, who show how bad this show is (for now), with very good arguments very well developed. It's visually beautiful, but the rest is bad, sometimes even awful. Most Tolkien/LOTR fans hate it, while they would all love to be positive and have a great LOTR show to watch and love. I like your reactions though.
That's not a "great video", it's someone saying that every line "makes no sense" without any arguments or reasons. Example: he can't figure out what the super simple sinking rock vs. sailing ship metaphor means, and then concludes that it doesn't make sense after he misinterprets it to be about literal rocks and literal boats. The dialogue was fantastic in this show, and everytime someone points at dialogue and claims it "makes no sense" that's because they didn't even bother to think about it...
@@andrew5500 Lol, he explains very well why it doens't makes any sense. If you want to talk about the video, at least watch it...And there are hundreds and hundreds of video that show how awful this season 1 is. If you think the dialogues are fantastic, i guess you never read any books, and that you don't even watch good shows and movies.
@@Laurent_08 I did watch, that's how I was able to explain an example of how his criticisms are far from "objective" and actually fall apart if you analyze them. The dialogue is way better than most shows and most movies. Some half-assed UA-cam video doesn't change that.
@@andrew5500 Lol, there are a ton of articles/videos, some of them by writers, that show how awful the dialogues are...And just watching the show should be enough to understand how bad it is. I guess you only watch shitty series/movies, probably a ton of Marvel Movies, to think "Rings Of Pover" = good writing...
Glad u enjoyed the show but it's a terrible adaptation of Tolkien's work. Characters are written terrible, the writing also has countradiction Elves don't need mithral to sustain their lives because they are eternal beings. Gandalf isn't even supposed to arrive as yet in middle Earth 🌎, he arrived in the third age after the first defeat of Sauron. Galadriel has been made into a villain that Sauron could deceive easily, she isn't the Lady of Light. So many things are wrong with this show, but as always great reaction.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. But from an overall standpoint... the show was just not good. Below average at best. Dialog was awful and contradictory half the time. The acting was cringey. (And I dont blame the actors and actresses. They could only do so much with the material they were given.) The characters just didn't match their personalities and they were mostly unlikable making it very hard to connect with them. The plot was too spread out, boring, and confusing. The mystery boxes were too obvious... People were able to guess who sauron was from the first scene he appeared. Majority of the things that happened in this season had nothing to do with the plot and could have been removed entirely to give more attention to what needed to have more focus. The implementation of physics was bad and what happened on screen was just unrealistic, even for a fantasy world. (The Hobbit had this issue too.) It may not be a deal breaker for some but all these issues added together is going to turn off most viewers. Not to take away from your experience... but im just saying the majority of the viewers and fans probably didn't like it for these reasons. The biggest problem the show had was the writing. Better writing would have made for a far better show and that's probably why people are so disappointed. It had so much potential and it just fell flat on its face. Good review though! I was wondering what people who enjoyed it were thinking! Its great to have your perspective as well. :)
Wait wait wait...we like Isildur? Were we watching the same show? Aside from how god awful this show is, Isildur is written to be disliked. That was the intention of the writers.
Okay cool that you liked it but they don't care about Tolkien at all they didn't do him justice they spit in his face and we aren't the small minority it's the majority of Tolkien fans hate this show even if it had nothing to do with Lord of the Rings this show would still be bad. And to to all the writers/show runners of this show should be fired for someone who cares about the lore but this has nothing to do with any Tolkien story they have created Character Assassination to every character they touch
ive watched all the movies and watched them a lot when i was younger. i read into the second lord of the rings book and played some lord of the rings games. i liked this show. its based on the books. it doesnt have to be exactly the same, the same way the mcu is its own thing based on marvel comics.
@@commentor2013 this isn't a comic book this is a Novel and they sold the entire show on the premise that it was true to the books but the show is bad on top of being a bastardised depiction of his work and if they didn't want to use the characters in Tolkiens work then make your own world but they wanted to cash in on the work of people that actually care about story,lore,characters, etc. Like Tolkien and Jackson
@@Strife93 It couldn’t possibly have been “true” to the books (or sold as such) considering the sources for the second age are sparse and contradictory. Faithfulness here isn’t about lore details but capturing and reflecting Tolkien’s tone and themes - which RoP has done better than any other adaptation to date. Also - they’re working with the Tolkien Estate but sure, randos on YT care more about his legacy 🙄
@@anaw2579 no they aren't and they literally changed every character and I quote they said we always go to the books books books but the characters don't act like they should and it's not close to being Tolkien and your being really stupid if you think they made a better adaptation than Peter Jackson
I wish I could enjoy things like you, but this show is trash. It looks pretty, yes, but is such a bad adaptation...Gandalf isn't even supposed to be here yet lol
To be fair, there's no definitive canon on any of that. The foreword to all of the books released after Tolkien's passing explicitly say their from fragments of unfinished notes, often contradictory, and not to be taken as set in stone the way The Hobbit and LotR was.
@@anni.68 Even his time of arrival as Gandalf is debatable; most people accept the appendices Third Age date, but Tolkien also gave earlier dates in the notes that Christopher would publish. As Christopher warns in those books, JRR never made up his mind about a lot of these details
@@danemiller4852 The books themselves, in their own forewords, say they are not to be taken as definitive, as they contain contradicting accounts and were not complete when JRR died
I'm searching for hours for a positive review of ROP on youtube, until I found this. I'm starting to feel like an idiot that I loved the show. But I know I'm not alone, my wife loved it and all of our friends who cared enough to watch it, loved it. And we are not even the 'average' fans I guess, because not only are we huge fans of the Jackson films, but all of us have read at least Hobbit, LOTR and The Silmarillion, some of us have even read more of Tolkien books. And it's not just me and my friends! With all this hate coming from youtubers and 'reviewers ' and influencers, still the show has a 6.9 rating in IMDB, with 48,000 1's but 74,000 10's too, in fact, 105,561 people gave it a 6 or less and 164,637 people gave it a 7 or more. This tells ME, that a lot more people liked it, rather than disliked it. I just can't understand why this enormous hate for the show and why it is only the hate that is reflected on the internet. Could it be better? Sure. Is some of the dialogue below par? Sure. Where there some cringe moments? Sure, as there where in the films AND the books... Was it worth 1 billion dollars? I don't know, where the chopped up rights from the Tolkien estate worth 250 million? Was House of the dragon Better? I guess so, it depends. But is it terrible? Certainly not! Should it be cancelled? Absolutely not! Was it exciting? It sure was. Did it leave you wanting more? Hell yeah! It's really disappointing to see only the negativity coming forward and unfortunately Amazon is going to listen to the haters, maybe they already did and taking action to fix things may actually make them worse instead of better.
Sure, legitimate criticism is totally "hate", just like I'm sure your positive outlook on the show makes you a shill - both opinions are as stupid as each other.
Why do you strawman critics of ROP as "haters"? If you actually read the negative criticisms or watch in depth critical reviews then you could "understand this enormous hate" or perhaps learn what criticisms people might have with the show instead of scatter-shot characterizing all those real people entitled to voice their opinions and interpretation of the show as "haters". Do you think that flatly dismissive language makes you some sort of superior person? Do you feel better than people criticizing ROP when you call them all "haters" as if they don't speak intelligently about what they object to? It doesn't make you morally better or display superior intelligence on your part to dismiss all those people in that manner, it's pathetically inane name calling and reflects poorly back upon you. 'Me Tribe Amazon, You Tribe Tolkien, Me Tribe throw rock at You Tribe' Pathetic.
@@korycassel5197 Apparently being critical of the Sun rising in the West in episode 6 is now probably hate speech rather then pointing out something physically wrong and silly, who knew right? Might not have been so noticeable if there wasn't that load of hogwash on the boat in episode 5 i think it was.
@@Delogros There are just so many examples of things like that which simply aren't worthy in the sense of writing coherence of being associated with the care and thorough nature of the story crafted by one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time. It goes on and on the legitimate criticisms of technical mistakes and holes in this show and that doesn't even address the philosophy and moral framework being championed by ROP that has zero resemblance to anything Tolkien tried to convey in his mythos. But critics are all "haters"? It's just not Tolkien; this expounding about morally grey confusion recognizing good from evil and it's not aimed at laying out a mythos to underlie eternal archetypal ethos that people are even supposed to interpret. Confusion about morality is the point. The postmodern philosophy is aiming to disrupt, dismantle, destroy those old-fashioned notions that there is any such thing as any recognizable or legitimate morality and that's what ROP was always aiming to pollute Tolkien's legacy with IMO. But we're all just "haters". OKaaaaay. 🤐
9:27 Yes, you did miss something. Adar said in the previous episode when Galadriel was interrogating him that "Sauron was in the process of crafting a power, not of the flesh but over flesh"..... when Celebrimbor said those exact same words, she started to become suspicious.
should she not be suspicious to Celebrimbor, NOT to Helbrand?
@@Krusesensei if celebrimbor wasn't a well known ELF maybe. also, he would've crafted this power a long time ago if it was celebrimbor, nothing's stopping him lol.
@@Neji513I mean she should be suspicious of him, if you’ve played shadow of war you know how his story ends💀 Bro is just as bad as Sauron
@@GabrielChillin I don't have to know anything about him.... again, if he knew of this technology, he would've crafted it a long time ago.
I think Gil Galad is misunderstood by most people. He's the only one saying hey maybe these rings aren't a good idea. They wanted to give him a crown and he turned it down because he knew having one person with all that power could be bad.
Fully agree! To add on, he said Galadriel would bring back Sauron in her quest to destroy him. He put his people first when deciding whether to move all elves to Valinor vs chancing their fate on Celimbrinbor. He also distrusted Halbrand when Celimbrinbor brought fourth his Crown idea.
@@maxpower7113 yeah, I mean if you actually pay attention to what he’s saying most of the season, he’s basically correct in every count for the most part
"When in doubt, always follow your nose, Meriadoc." -Gandalf
I don't think the show is above having someone else say that line just as a misdirection to make people think he's Gandalf.
@@30noir well yes, theyve got Galadriel running around like a Level 99 goddess!!
Is that you Mithrandir?
@@DarthBreezusWell I mean she is the most powerful being on middle of Earth with exception of Sauron
@@GabrielChillin not with a sword and 20 grown men around her she aint!!
I’ve been a supporter and defender of this show since it was announced. In my opinion, anything that brings more people to Tolkien’s work is a good thing. I grew up on the books and the animated adaptations that my parents had. Loved the live action movies. There are big differences among all of them, so the fact this show makes changes, too, doesn’t bother me at all. It’s fun and interesting to see other artists’ takes on Tolkien, getting a glimpse of what his work says to them.
I made a decision to go into Rings Of Power looking for things to enjoy, instead of being a nit picker and a hater. And there is a lot here to enjoy!
There are going to be many people for whom ROP is their first exposure to Tolkien’s world. It’s my duty as a graybeard to welcome them, not scold them. And to share with them the source of their new fandom, all that has come before.
As for this episode: the moment Halbrand stepped into Celebrimbor’s workshop, I knew. I had strong suspicions before that, but thanks to my knowledge of the lore, and how the elven rings were made there, that moment in the show was confirmation. I actually gave a little evil laugh.
Thanks for supporting this show, Imon. I’ll be here with you for season 2.
great comment! I agree, same thoughts here! 😊 The most important thing is: it's opening the universe to new fans, just like I happened to become after watching the movies as a child (and so many other people) even though they also lack some points in fidelity, we didn't care and that's what excited us to search the source material.
You are not some sort of superior person characterizing critics of ROP as "nit picker and a hater" online. Reflects poorly upon you, it's just name calling to put human beings into a BAD box. There are well worded and reasoned criticisms of ROP that bring into question the philosophical agenda of the mythos being portrayed in the show and point to it being an attempt to very fundamentally retcon Tolkien's work. They are not lesser people than you for pointing out what they perceive a long bad intentioned agenda to degrade Tolkien. It's documented and verifiable that ardent supporters of Communism wrote the 'racist, sexist, misogynist' smears about Tolkien and his fans all the way back in the 1960's trying to erase Tolkien from cultural popularity and perhaps remove it from publishable status entirely, an early iteration of a Woke cancel culture attempt. This is the latest attempt in the view of many informed Tolkien fans to degrade Tolkien's work. Not erasing or cancelling his work from fashionable acceptability, but now with this new strategy, retconning it's message and philosophical core tenants. That's not a perspective accurately described by the "hater" name calling you and those defending the show engage in regularly. You can be more accurately described as the haters yourselves IMO. How you like that? You're on the wrong side of history in the BAD person box.
I'd agree that anything which exposes new fans to Tolkien's works is a good thing. Particularly something like this which may prompt a bunch of casuals to get into his more lore heavy stuff like the Silmarillion. That being said, I haven't watched this show, only a few clips, and I don't plan to.
It has less to do with them changing so much, and more to do with them cramming so much movie lore into these stories. They don't need Gandalf to appear. They don't need Galadriel to be a warrior woman. This world is STUFFED with history and lore. They could've so easily just added new versions of characters instead, have the Wizard be one of the Blue Wizards, etc, but didn't because they want to appeal to the masses who know the films, which bothers me, its lazy storytelling, which I cannot abide.
In a perfect world they'd have access to the Silmarillion rights and could just tell First Age stories, do a new one each season. God that would be cool. Do a season on The Noldor vs. Melkor in the early days. Do a season on Beren and Luthien. Do a season on The Children of Hurin. The War of Wrath. It'll never happen, but that's the dream lol
@@KS-xk2so I'm always baffled by people who haven't watched the show speaking so confidently about what they think the show changed.
The Stranger isn't Gandalf. He's going east into Rhun this season, and all indicators are that he'll turn out to be a Blue Wizard.
Galadriel WAS a warrior woman in at least some of Tolkien's self-retcons of her backstory. Much of what's shown of her in this show is consistent with those bits of not-really-canon.
Rings Of Power is being made with the blessing of the Tolkien Estate, who maintain veto power over everything in it. They also have the ability to greenlight, on a case by case basis, uses of the IP from outside LOTR and its Appendices. Which is why it looks like we're getting so much more lore in Season 2 lifted directly from The Silmarillion
I think the Second Age is a great choice for an adaptation precisely because it is so loosely defined. The stories from the First Age would perform better as stand alone films than as long-form episodic television IMO. But if you want to improve the chances of them being made, it's in your interest to support projects like ROP or War Of The Rohirrim. It's the success of projects like this that can convince both the Estate and studios that more adaptations are a safe financial bet.
If ROP, WotR, and whatever Peter Jackson & Andy Serkis are cooking fail, the perfect world you described will be farther away, not clsoer.
@@BoboftheOldeWays I've read synopsis and reviews of the episodes, so while I haven't watched them, I thought I had a decent handle on the plot. Wasn't aware the Stranger was a Blue Wizard... I feel like the moths symbolism pointed to Gandalf, not to mention I think its mentioned in the Hobbit movies Gandalf was also in Rhun at some point.... everything I read seemed to indicate he was Gandalf, if not so, thats great. As for Galadriel.... the amount of Tolkiens writing that supports her being a sword weilding warrior woman is pretty small and hazy when compared to the volumes saying she isn't. She's a magic user. I just think they could've used any one of a dozen other characters and it would've made a lot more sense. I'm fine with a warrior woman Elf main character.... just make one up, don't completely re-invent a well known and defined character. Hell, have it be Celebrian, we know almost nothing about her, and you could eventually toss in some romance shit with Elrond too.
I do agree Second Age allows for them to make more stuff up, due to a lack of stories from that era, I just wish they'd use that power more, rather than making changes to established characters instead.
Completely disagree about the First Age though. Those stories are so lore heavy that making films about them would be near impossible. Not to mention the Silmarillion isn't really a complete "story" anyways, it reads like a textbook almost, a bunch of specific tales losely woven together, which I think translates much better to a variety of seasons of TV.
One of Sauron’s many names is The Great Deceiver, and it is said the best lies have some truth in them, well he lived up to that title. Not once did he truly lie to any of them, and yet he manipulated them so perfectly by making all those who helped them think it was their idea. Damn Charlie Vickers was perfectly cast.
As for the scenes with The Stranger and Nori, I did not think I was gonna cry this episode, but when Nori said goodbye to her family and then when Poppy ran up to her and hugged her I couldn’t help but cry.
What truly is upsetting is that rather than shoot seasons 1, 2, and 3 back to back to back Amazon Studios only JUST started production on season 2 as of this video being released. And the show runners have said it will be YEARS before we see the next season. So while I’m still going to watch season 2 I’m afraid that most people will completely forget about the show by then.
You have saurons origins confused. Sauron never began as a man. He was one of the Ainur (maiar and valar) and helped Eru to create all of reality. He is older than creation itself. Nor is Gandalf a descendant of anyone. He himself is a Maia spirit named Olorin who also has existed longer than creation itself.
Actually Sauron is a Maia too, which explains why the sisters confused the two. Though the Wizards' powers are sealed by more feeble flesh (which means, unlike Sauron, they can be permanently killed through mundane means without divine intervention), they are technically equal in status and relative power.
@@Philweasel i said he was one of the ainur which includes both maiar and valar so i dont know what youre thinking youre correcting...
Boromir: One cannot simply walk into Mordor....
Sauron: Hold my beer
I'm pretty sure our friendly wizard saying "always follow your nose" is meant to confirm to the audience that this is Gandalf. In The Fellowship of the Ring, while entering the caves to the dwarven city, he says the same exact thing to Merry.
I think he might be one of the 2 blue wizzards cause in tolkiens work there were 5 in total and the blue ones arrived earlier in Middle-Earth than the rest. The other 3 only arrived there in the 3rd age and not the 2nd one.
@@firecat4529 Personally I don't believe so since that quote is clearly referencing Gandalf in the first film (he used the same exact line). His adventures this season also explain why he has such a fondness for the hobbits in LOTR. Not to mentiom Amazon is merely adapting the appendices they bought the rights to. Things won't be exactly the same as in the books, and that's okay. This show is their interpretation of the story and world. Besides relatively speaking, there's not that much info on the blue wizards to work with. However there's enough on Gandalf The Grey, plus his name will attract additional audiences.
Best reaction. LOTR saved my life too. It came out when I was college and I felt alone and scared in the world. Both my kids have Tolkien inspired names
I can't wait to see Rhun and Harad and all those places we didn't get to see in LOTR. I think those three mystics came from a cult in the east. If the wizard is Gandalf I'll accept it, but I hope he's a blue wizard because we've never seen them before.
I mean, it was pretty much confirmed that he's Gandalf with the "When in doubt, always follow your nose"-line.
Love your positivity! Thank you Imon, Theres so much hate online. I dont understand it all honestly, i had a great time with this show
There's so much hate online for very good reason unfortunately.
DeathSwitch
If you want to understand the "hate", there are a ton of great (and sometimes funny) videos explaining how bad is this show, all the flaws, all the things that doesn't makes any sense. I think that if you watch them, you will understand why so much people say this is an awful show and an insult to Tolkien work...
@@Laurent_08 Exactly. Unfortunately most people who advocate for this series are doing so on ideological grounds, and therefore will not even entertain the possibility of reasonable and justifiable criticism. Shame.
@@Laurent_08 have your own opinions on things don’t rely on youtubers
This wasnt an invitation to reiterate your opinions, I clearly said ive seen the hate online, I just disagree with a lot of the critisms. To say its based on ideological grounds is laughable, i could say the same about your critisms but it doesnt change your opinion! Why do i have to justify why i like something to people who clearly dont want to know why, they just want to tell me that my subjective opinion on a series is wrong. Get some perspective, lads.
I'm so glad that a big fan of Tolkien's works like you genuinely liked the show despite all the hate online. Gotta confess I also got a little emotional haha
No, Sauron was not a man. He is a Maia, one of the Ainur, created before the creation of the universe.
Also, Gandalf has no descendants. :) He is an Istar, a "Wizard," one of the Maiar, an immortal spirit. There only five Istari.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this, I really enjoyed it too and loved all of the characters! I'm very invested in this story and I can't wait for the next season!
8:08 “call it a gift” Sauron’s elf form is named Annatar which means lord of gifts.
Showrunners have confirmed we will see Annatar in season 2 to finish the other rings.
I knew who Sauron was since like episode 4, the villain is always the hot guy. Lmao
I genuinely could not agree more. They absolutely captured the essence of Tolkien with this show. Considering they lacked the rights to large parts of the legendarium makes it even more of a triumph.
edit: I do personally hope that the Wizard isn't Gandalf, although i think thats where its leaning. Just a little too on the nose. Would much rather he be one of the two Blue Wizards since we know they existed and thats about it.
This was a beautiful final episode, this and episode 6 are my favorites, overall this was a fantastic season I’m so into this story
i enjoyed watching this with you and i’m happy you loved it! i’m not super well-versed with the books but i’ve seen the movies, including the hobbit series and i just love the characters and the overall theme of lotr. this show is so well done, so cinematic, and it’s given us more characters and relationships to be invested in. i also enjoyed the pacing and how they took the time to tell the story that will bring it forward to future seasons!
Stranger's music was always too lovely for him to be Sauron that was my theory 🤣🤣
I love the idea of that Sauron servant being like "damn those daggers REALLY hurt, bro I'm sorry for throwing it at you I didn't know.." 🤣🤣🤣
Undercover boss, Mordor Edition.
Oh that's fun! Your experience with the LOTR movies is similar to mine in that I only saw ROTK in theatres too. Except I was perfectly allowed to watch them but I was 11 in 2003 so when FOTR came out I was 9 so I think probably fair I wasn't carted off to the cinema to see it then. But my dad saw the trailer for Two Towers and saw the rohirrim charging down the hill to Helms Deep and was like dang we should watch that. He got the FOTR VHS and we watched it and I didn't particularly enjoy myself I was a bit scared. Not sure what happened between then and TTT coming to VHS as i remember being excited that we were going to get it. In hindsight there was a lot I didn't understand about the stories..but I did develop my first crush ever on Legolas (the absolute mental journey of this 🤣🤣) and became generally obsessed with the movies and would go on the official websites and I think it is the first time I consciously remember being like..super into a particular thing and all the aspects of it because I just loved it. Feelings which have become a big part of my personality, it was always what I was like. I still am. Love a fandom! 🤣. I saw ROTK 5 times with all different friends as they went for their first time. It's still my record for most times seeing one film in the cinema 😂. My dad and I watched Two Towers together every friday for weeks and weeks. All the behind the scenes stuff and watching all different things with all the actors (it led me to watching LOST which i love, also Hidalgo, I still get a buzz seeing a LOTR actor in something) was just my life for so long. The build up to the first Hobbit film coming out was similar, I remember going into university after waking up at 3am to watch the live stream of the new zealand premiere 😂. I could probably still recite the ROTK theatrical trailer to you I watched it a ridiculous number of times. I'm so pleased I grew to love this show. I went in with interest and an open mind but happy to be fairly indifferent but I'm definitely invested!
Personally I enjoyed ROP much more than HOTD. This show has more room for improvement, admittedly HOTD is more polished. But this show got me much more invested in the characters and feels like, if they can fix the dialogue and stop the cheap effects, it can become a 10/10 show.
I agree. The dynamic between Galadriel and Sauron was just masterful and makes the scene where Frodo offers her the ring so much more meaningful for me. She had overcome this temptation before and what a temptation. The fact that Galadriel and Elrond never even spoke the words of what her mistake was spoke so much to their long, long, long and abiding friendship. Elrond's loyalty to his friends was so heavily focused on int his season and I loved that as well. So much amazing stuff being set up for the upcoming seasons. Was happy to watch this with you.
Loved your reaction so much! I’m right there with you, so many emotions!! Loved this ep, loved this seasons and couldn’t be more excited for the future ones! The are absolutely doing JRRT justice. ❤
How exactly are they doing Tolkien justice?
Seeing this after a rewatch. I love your reaction and your analysis on the deeper messages!
I think one of the most fascinating theories I've heard is that he's not *actually* Sauron. That he is a human and his story of finding that sigil is real, but when Adar "killed" Sauron he put his essence in the sigil as like a proto ring, to which he could puppet the person holding the Sigil and take over when needed. That's why it was so easy (Despite Sauron being called the Great Deceiver) for him to fit in and act like a human. And I think he's biding his time until all of the rings are forged.
I’m wondering this too 🤔….
The moment Halbrand said, "Consider it a gift." I knew.
lol, "shes young and reckless" - Bruh she's like 5500 years old here XD
The sea is always right!! The elves are taking our jobs!! The orcs are people too! 😂😂
That was a really great finale! Great first season overall.
“Always follow your nose” - Gandalf
Did you not put it together?....."Always follow your nose!".......where else was that Line said?........and yeah! I'm with you! Can't wait till season 2. I am truly invested now.....
"When Thangorodrim was broken and Morgoth overthrown, Sauron put on his fair hue again and did obeisance to Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, and abjured all his evil deeds. And some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear, being dismayed by the fall of Morgoth and the great wrath of the Lords of the West. But it was not within the power of Eönwë to pardon those of his own order, and he commanded Sauron to return to Aman and there receive the judgement of Manwë. Then Sauron was ashamed, and he was unwilling to return in humiliation and to receive from the Valar a sentence, it might be, of long servitude in proof of his good faith; for under Morgoth his power had been great. Therefore when Eönwë departed he hid himself in Middle-earth; and he fell back into evil, for the bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him were very strong."
I'm glad you liked it, this show gets so much hate.
I thought I will hate it, as I really don't like the Hobbit movies (I love the books) but to my surprise I didn't. It won't be my favorite and obviously not "canon" material, but feels like an adaptation of myths and legends, not a novel (and the Silmarillion are stories, and legends even on Middle earth). There are a long list of things I don't like in it, but an equally long list of thing I really did. From imagery, production design, set design, story driving. I loved the slow pace of the season. I don't want to list what I did not like, the show gets enough flak as it is :D
I wantched the finale with friends. When the Witches named the Stranger Sauron, some us was happy some us not, but OK. But when Halbrand started to talk to Celebrimbor we all just nod, amost in unison. It's him. The Annatar. When he said "Call it a gift" was only the cherry on top. :)
I liked when Galadriel said he convinced Queen Míriel to help, for me that showed that in some way she didn't even realized how it was her who pushed the idea. Also the whole help with Celebrimbor shown Sauron had the power of persuasion giving people ideas and later they remembered it as their own.
I think in the next season he will be back full as Annatar and helps Celebrimbor make the 7 and 9 since it was Elrond and Galadriel who did not trust him, but Celebrimbor and the elven smiths of Eregion did.
Loved your reaction when Sauron said he has many names he's not exaggerating his original name is Mairon when he was good and he's one of the maiar Gandalf"s race and he's a shapeshifter like he turned into a werewolf a vampire and a snake and in The Simarilian his name is Annatar Lord of Gifts in this age when he's in this disguise
great reaction. Enjoyed the season too and can't wait for next season. We know it'll be 5 seasons so it sounds like they have a good plan to contain the story within all of that :)
That line the wizard said toward the end "always follow your nose" is 100% confirmation it is Gandalf. He says the exact thing in the Fellowship of the Ring. I absolutely loved this show, had tears in my eyes at every turn. I will absolutely look forward to watching your reaction to the 2nd season!
Adar said "over the flesh" to Galadriel.
They thought he was sauron because sauron is the strongest of all the Maiar /Astari saruman is next then Gandalf… after them I’m not sure
Sorry I´m late to the party, just discovered your review and am absolutely loving it!!!!!!
1.) I 100% agree with you, the writing, acting, cinematography, score and costumes are next level and the fact that they got so much of the lore right is incredible!
2.) Galadriel's journey & temptation were the best thing honestly, connects perfectly with the Mirror scene in Fellowship of the Ring & The Silmarillion
3.) Sauron is a Maiar (angelic beings only second in power to the Valar/gods) and could change his form at will for the longest while, Adar "killing" Sauron would mean he lost his current shape and his spirit staying shapeless until he had enough strength to form a new body. After Morgoth got defeated Sauron did feel remorse for his actions but was too chicken to go back to be judged by the gods so he decided to first clean-up the mess he'd made- we know how that went south.
Amazing reaction as usually Imon, really loving your content lately!
I'm excited they introduced Rhûn in this episode. Thats the land those human soldiers in gold armour from Two Towers came from.
I'm a huge Tolkien fan, and I've had to explain to haters that this ending actually doesn't stray from the canon, and is actually a really elegant way to do it.
Have you had to explain to "haters" how almost everything else does stray from canon and basically butchers Tolkien's work?
@@nurfnurder Dude, it's an adaption, adaptions change things, if I wanted to experience the story exactly as it was, I'd just read the Silmarillion or The History of Middle Earth.
The main story beats will still occur, just in different order. The events of the 7 and 9 are likely to still happen in the same way - but at least the show contextualises why the 1st of the 7 was given to Durin III prior to the events later at Eregion which isn't explained in any detail in the books.
The Jackson trilogy changed LOADS from the original book.
Stop looking for an excuse to piss and moan and just read The Fall of Gondolin or something to calm down.
@@Cirac1 the sea is always right! The elves are taking our jobs!
@@enoshima6699 Seeing as Numenorians are the only people known to be actively religious in Arda, are an ocean fairing people and that their very island was created by Ossë, a maia of the sea associated with Ulmo, the Valar of the seas - yes that is very likely that's a view they would have.
And in Akallabêth it does show the gradual corruption and envy in the Numenorians towards the Elves. Specifically, the Kings Men during the reign of Tar-Ancalimon.
@@Cirac1 yes it does really sound Tolkienian. great prose, poetry and structure. the show is an absolute revelation, like Tolkien wrote himself. lol.
I really loved this show! Watching you innocently be pleased at Halbrand helping along with the mithril was entertaining. I'm a big fan of LOTR but don't know much about the lore outside of those stories except a few bits and I've been learning as this show goes on which has been fun. I had learned over the past few weeks that he appears in disguise and lends his skill to the forging of the elven rings, so the second I saw him go and talk to Celebrimbor I was like..well shit it's definitely him 🤣🤣. And yes the "not of the flesh but over flesh" was said by Adar in a previous episode when he was explaining to Galadriel what Sauron was seeking. I would have probably forgotten it but it was in the recap at the start 🤣.
I haven't fully committed to The Stranger being Gandalf yer but if he's not they're doing a hell of a lot to reference him. "Always follow your nose", a direct quote, "adventures should be shared/i'm looking for someone to share in an adventure", the moth motif, fire powers, being friends with the halflings. One friend had a fun theory about it being Saruman as he apparently actively chose good and Gandalf did look up to him pre-evil turn so could have taken on his advice.
The couple of friends I have that are super into the wider lore REALLY ove this show and I've had some fun theory conversations with them. Plus some other reactions I've watched have people who know more about the lore and are enjoying it a lot. People coming out here like "Tolkien fans all actually hate it", I've yet to see a somewhat level headed comment about disliking it that doesn't just turn into "it's all complete irredeemable trash and everything about it was awful and the writers are shit". I wish these people well in going out and making something better. My friends have had the odd nit pick and so have I but people need to understand and adaptation of written word (with limits due to legal rights issues) isn't going to be spot on and things are different visually.
Personally as I say, I've loved it. As a LOTR fan, just enough recognisable stuff to make me feel involved but enough new stuff for a great intriguing story that I can keep guessing about!
There are countless videos here on youtube by level headed Tolkien fans that completely deconstruct how bad the writing is, how the script and editing make no sense, how they have completely butchered Tolkien's characters, lore, and the spirit of his works. Any level headed, true, Tolkien fan can understand these arguments against the show. Maybe widen your horizons and actually listen to those arguments.
@@nurfnurder weird because I've seen a lot of Tolkien fans really enjoying the show. I don't really want to sit and watch youtube essays about why I shouldn't like a thing I already enjoy. I'm also not here for this "true" Tolkien fan gatekeeping shit. If you're a fan you're a fan. He could have hated the LOTR movies we don't know 😂. We don't get to decide what's good enough for him.
@@JeM130177 "I've yet to see a somewhat level headed comment about disliking it that doesn't just turn into "it's all complete irredeemable trash and everything about it was awful and the writers are shit"" Why say this if you aren't even trying to look or understand then?
We know a lot about Tolkien and what he would have liked or disliked through his countless letters and interviews. He decided for himself what is good enough from him, and we can infer from his words what was good enough for him.
It's weird how anyone who agrees with you you have no problem with, yet anyone who disagrees is an elitist gatekeeper. Kind of a one sided mentality when you think about it. Have you actually tried listening to and understanding the arguments of people who dislike the show? Well that's a no since "I don't really want to sit and watch youtube essays about why I shouldn't like a thing I already enjoy." But if you aren't willing to listen then maybe the problem is with you and not the "haters". If you haven't listened to any opposing view how can you have any hope to argue against those views and points? And how can you even know what those arguments are and then describe them as descending into "this show is trash and the writers are shit"?
@@nurfnurder i didn't say I've not heard anything at all. I see plenty of criticism along with praise from people who have generally enjoyed it, but those out here just being purely negative haven't been very nuanced yet from my experience. I'm glad they're out there.
I have my own issues with the show. But on a lot of reaction videos like this any negativity I see just dissolves into endless hatred. It's hard to take people seriously when they're just berating you for liking something that is apparently so objectively terrible. I've certainly not seen anyone who largely disliked it sit and consider the argument of it actually having some good points.
There's a difference between engaging in a little discussion and devoting my time to sit for an hour listening to someone i know I'm not going to enjoy watching because I mainly disagree with their view. Which is clearly not how everyone works because plenty of people continued to watch this show despite it being apparently terrible, so they could continue to tell us how terrible it is.
Also gate keeping has nothing to do with whether you agree with me. If someone came here and said "true fans will know this show is great and not dislike it" I would disagree with that too. I hate anyone dictating what is and isn't a fan. Which is apparently whether they agree with you or not.
@@JeM130177 You are using the word "hate" alot. Since you have time to accuse people of hatred, can you show me some proof of this hatred? Bear in mind there is a massive difference between dislike, disgust, criticism and disappointment, and actual hatred. So where is this hatred you seem to think is rife?
People didnt continue to watch this terrible show just so they could tell others how terrible it is, they continued to watch in the hope that it would actually be good and true to Tolkien. You seem to assume a lot about the people who disagree with you. Those who dislike the show would have been its biggest fans had the producers done an actual good job.
Anyway, I'll call your bluff.
Good things about the show...
1. The visuals are beautiful
2. The soundtrack in places is brilliant.
3. The acting of Eleanore and Durin was great.
Bad things...
1. They completely butchered Galadriel as a character. Galadriel's might is in her prowess to be wise, intelligent and far-seeing. She is the epitome of gracefulness. She never needed a sword or to be a warrior. infact Tolkien writes most of the people's of Arda to be very much against war, and the only instance that Tolkien ever implies Galadriel picking up a sword is in the Kinslaying. She isn't a warrior. In this show she only a warrior, she is brash, arrogant, rude and abrasive, doesn't care for the lives of her kin, genocidal, never listens to advice, and completely dislikeable. They have also somehow made her responsible for the ascendancy of Sauron.
2. The Harfoots are sociopaths. Many times we see them stating they never leave a person behind, yet they take every and any opportunity to put people at the back of the train to be left behind. They laugh about the deaths of their kin while reminiscing.
3. The scriptwriting is seriously poor. In one episode we have Elendil in anguish because his son Isildur is thought dead from being crushed in the burning building... Yet we know Isildur to be the one to cut the ring from Sauron's finger: a completely useless mystery box.
Again, Galadriel states that her husband Celeborn is dead. Yet we know Arwen from LotR to be a direct descendant of both of them. Another completely useless mystery box. Expect Celeborn to make an appearance in the next seasons.
I can give many many more examples of poor scriptwriting (such as the stupid and illogical way Mordor is made; the general outlandish lexicon of the people "okay" is not a word that would have been used; Galadriel jumping off the boat to Valinor and thinking she can swim thousands of miles back to Middle Earth, only to coincidentally be saved by a boat that just happened to have Sauron/Halbrand on it just because the plot needs it), but I'll leave that there.
4. The showrunners themselves have pretty much stated they have no respect for Tolkien. They said it seemed "only natural to them that a fantasy tale should reflect the world we live in today"... a fantasy... Why they felt it was appropriate for a fantasy to reflect the real world (and not the author's original spirit and intent) is beyond me. Anybody can see that what this really means is "we think Tolkien is wrong and we need to update it and make it better." That is not respect, that is disrespect.
Anybody with an ounce of respect for Tolkien and the spirit of his works would be annoyed at this. Can you debate my points? You've been very vocal with me thus far, or will you close down this discussion now that I have made a few valid and logical points?
If you haven’t been watching Deadline’s Inside the Ring videos, you should. They give neat behind the scenes stuff, interviews
Im late to this reaction, but damn, this was really entertaining. They totally DID do justice to Tolkien's world. Honestly, your reaction was realllllly great, emotional and at times hilarious lol. It sucks that the next season will likely take so long, but I cant wait. Thanks for the great time
In the book at least 3 of the Nazgûl are Numanoreans, 1 is an easterling who we haven’t met yet maybe in season 2. The others are unknown.
I can't wait for next season. I just hope it doesn't come back on at the same time as GOT HOTD. It needs its own slot on the calendar and I hope its Sunday night. That would be way better.
I think the wizzatd might be one of the 2 blue wizzards cause in tolkiens work there were 5 Istari in total and the blue ones arrived earlier in Middle-Earth than the rest. The other 3 only arrived there in the 3rd age and not in the 2nd one, as far as I know.
Since they are compressing time-lines, I think this episode all but said he is Gandalf. But if not, that's fine too. I'm not hung up on exact details, just a good adaptation. I'm totally loving the show.
I heard the show runners gonna be sidelined, but their not gonna fire. Instead, their role gonna be reduced and put them in the writing room.
There are some who dislike the slow pace of this series.. but it's actually very true to Tolkien storytelling. And the casting in this series was top tier!
They are covering several thousand years all at the same time... Tolkien ain't that slow.
Although Rings of Power is flawed, I enjoyed it. It was ambitious & faced an impossible task of satisfying diehard Tolkien fans while trying to win new fans with a fresh persoective & “reimagining” of the events surrounding the Rings of Power. It’s always fun to journey into Middle-Earth. The story was entertaining & it was visually beautiful. Bear McCreary composed an amazing soundtrack for it too which really embellished the show. Many of the actors were incredible too. I liked the actor Ismael. CRuz Cordova who played Arondir & Robert Aramayo as Elrond. Joseph Mawle who played Ben Stark in GoT really shone as a tormented ex-Elf/Father Uruk & Charlie Vickers really gave Sauron multiple dimensions - he wasn’t just a trite villain but charming. Remember Sauron was a benevolent being once, a powerful Maiar or “Angelic” being at the start who wanted order bit came to be deceptive along with his charm & charisma on his oath to evil & quest for power & domination. Owain Arthur absolutelt crushed it as the fierce but loyal & charming dwarf Prince Durin IV. He stole scenes & his banter with Erond harkened Gimli & Legolas.
Your reaction was great as always Imom. You were very perceptive with Halbrand/Sauron. I think at this time his intentions were more benevolent if you will & he believed his intentions & ends were justified & good. He wanted order but his ends didn’t justify his means. The actir Charlie abickers really showed Sauron’s charm & seductiveness even though his ultimate quest was power & dominion over all. I think he saw himself as justified.
Many rectors don’t know all the histories & lote of Middle-Earth & Tolkien’s “legendarium.” If one can read the books & watch all the movies & get a better grasp of the creation legends & all the backgrounds, histories & lore of all the places, people & things you gain a greater understanding on it all. E.G. what happened to Numenor. How Gondor & Rohan were formed. Why were the Elves leaving? What happened to Morgoth. What was Mairon’s or Annatars or Sauron’s “bio?” How did he become Sauron. Why were the wizards sent. Etc. There is so much deepness & richness to it. I am no expert but pretty well versed. Obviously when you have a better grasp of all the histories & lore of Tolkien’s incredible world, these stories gain so much more depth as you know about the history behind things, motivations, etc
Excited for Season 2 which hopefully comes much sooner than later. Be safe & hope all is good on your end as always. Peace & cheers!😉👍
I love seeing the moment of Galadriel relinquishing the knife. It was such a huge moment of just letting go of her vengeance and all the things that drove her in this first season.
Cute reaction Imon!
Honestly, I'm a huge fan of the old movies but seeing everything play put before is surreal. Can't wait for next season.
And yeah he manipulates the elves to create the rings of power specifically Celebrimbor but he begins to suspect him so he created the elven rings behind his back so Sauron couldn't corrupt them like the rest
I enjoyed your reaction to episode 8 - Alloyed. I thought it wrapped things up pretty well and I enjoy the characters. It will probably be a couple of years before season 2.
The line was broken the person got so surprised he honked
It has to be Gandalf for sure.
Four more seasons of this amazing show!!! 🔥🔥🔥
4 сезона позора, это первое очернение Толкина, Саурон человеком не был
Loved the whole season !!! Great reaction ! Cannot wait for season 2 omg
as a lotr fan, i love this show and your reaction, thanks :)
I'd be very interested in seeing you watch some lore videos about the 2nd age, the rings of power, Galadriel's, Sauron's and definitely Morgoth's story as a comparison to the show, to see what you like and dislike about both. I think the show is ok but I still find what Tolkien wrote as more engaging for me personally. Sadly the Tolkien Estate didn't give Amazon the rights to the Simarillion, to make the show more accurate to the books. I'd also love to see a show about the 1st age and the fights with Morgoth and the creation of Arda, Tolkiens world.
“What do we do we swim” “swim” “ oh oh oh oh oh ohhhhh love to swimmmm” #dori
i just wish everyone would see this show same way as we do Q_Q
Its hard when you've read the books, know the lore, and can see how badly they butchered it. :/ though if people love the show more power to them. But for the target audience they marketed it to (Tolkien fans) it was just... bad. The writing was just so bad. Visuals were beautiful. But good lord, it was nothing close to what Tolkien had envisioned and written so clearly.
@@danemiller4852 i dont see how this is relevant . none of us is tolken . so how come we know if this is not even making him happy . i think the show done justice to the legacy . and added on it which is LIFE about , imagin taking a copy past of the book . for the ppl who read them it would be awaful and just plain . spoiled . btw tolken him self is inspired by some ohter . whom he was insipredby .
@@mekadragon86 Tolkien wrote into his work the 'Cosmic Hunt'; the very first story of them all. The One Ring itself is an adaptation of an ancient Greek parable, the dragons, the hero's journey, etc... His great work is all a very grand and masterfully executed weaving together of ancient mythical metaphysics which we rest our ethos, our ethical axioms upon. That from which we derive our Western cultural notions of good and evil. And it is done with the very highest level of writing skill to make a single coherent mythos out of all that is incorporated.
ROP is absolutely antithetical to that work Tolkien invested so much labor and talent into creating. It is by stark contrast serving a johnny-come-lately jaded cynical postmodernist philosophy that there is no such thing as definable ethos or even any particular deontological morality at all. Relativism, shades of grey, power and ends justify the means consequentialism and of course, allegorical current day identity politics are shot through ROP.
It is an assault and pollution of the legacy of one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time by FAR lesser talents with actual bad intentions IMO and the opinions of many Tolkien fans who recognize the WRONGNESS of ROP being associated with Tolkien's work. To many of us who have read the 'racist, fascist, misogynist' descriptions of Tolkien by critics (which goes back to the 1960s FYI) this has been a bad intentioned goal of people looking to disrupt, dismantle, destroy cultural moral frameworks of the West for a long time and we see ROP with that context added to our perspective. You will not know good from evil and make choices based in an applicable moral framework to live a better life in a better world following the philosophical direction ascribed by ROP. It's not a story in the mythology promoting virtues as Tolkien would have written it, the execution is very substandard in comparison too so NO, critics of ROP do not agree that it does his legacy justice.
"I don't care what people say..." This is the way! ;)
She is quite literally broadcasting herself onto the internet for people to care about her and support her financially, so that's a lie. She cares.
This is an amazing adaptation. But people have to understand that the Tolkien estate didn’t not give permission nor sell the rights to the Silmarillion to Amazon. What we have seen here is from the appendices of the books of The lord of the rings. So this is a limited presentation of, not the Silmarillion but a rendition of Tolkien’s limited presentation which was available to the story writers. Amazon should be recognized for the story they were able to craft. If people are upset because the show wasn’t true to the Silmarillion blame the Tolkien estate, not Amazon. Imagine how amazing the story could have been if they had been allowed the rights to the book.
Loved your reaction & loved the show!
Didn't get the "always follow your nose" line?
How is this channel so good? Somehow you can look at this show and mine it for every drop of LOTR nostalgia and wholesome messages, instead of focusing on how derivative and out of character it is.
Art is subjective, why can't we all be friends instead ? Some people spit some hate and call it constructive criticism. Others try to give their opinions and try to explain them, they are called hater. It is sad to live in a cancel culture where this line is blurred. I'm used to get out of the theaters and talk with people about what they did and din't enjoy about a movie. That's why I watch reaction channels. But when a fanbase is so big, if they don't like something, some feel betrayed and conversation becomes toxic. It's : "don't talk to me if liked it." or "don't talk to me if you didn't like it".
I love Sauron man🤣🤣🤣🤪.Love the character
I like how incredibly wrong you are about both kings, Gil-Galad and Durin.
and i dislike how incredibly agressive your comment is :)
Wow, somebody actually watched this.
I can't stand adaptations, even the Peter Jackson trilogy. Nothing to worry about though with The Rings of Power, as it's completely original and nothing to do with Tolkien.
For those saying that it's a good entry to Tolkien, just read the books.
You're reaction is totally same to my reaction. You're a very open minded person. I really enjoyed your reaction.
👏👏👏❤
Any real Author's purpose is give some msg to the society through their books. If Tolkien that kind of person he'll be happy.
Books fans think 100% world people know about Tolkien and his books but real word it isn't 1% people know things and 99% most of people don't know. Because this time period is a digital era not pages era. Tolkien estate destroyed LOTR not Amazon.
I actually don't care about lore anymore. If they ( Amazon ) don't have full rights ( Second Age details ) how they create something according to the lore and why people hope 100% lore. Are they silly? that's my question. This isn't Amazon/ HBO/Netflix problem. This is Tolkien estate problem. Time has come give them rights then they'll create this according to the lore. I think they don't have full rights, they create similar story lore and non lore. PJ had full rights and he did it according to the lore. The Problem is Tolkien Estate's old ideas. They dumped HBO, Netflix and PJ don't forget about that.
My English not perfect sorry for that 😢
"I actually don't care about lore anymore" then you have no interest in Tolkien, the books are the lore after all and no one expected 100% faithfulness to the lore, 15% would have been nice though.
Amazing series!!
I'm a big Tolkien fan and I liked the show! Don't listen to the haters
Amazon doesn't own right to Galdalf. So i wondering how this is gonna play out. There are 2 wizards we havent seen yet in live action.
love this non toxic reaction girl!
Great reaction and beautiful story you told about your connection with LOTR. Awesome show, incredible characters, visuales, storylines and details, its superb!
Thanks for keeping that positive attitude and sharing it with everyone. We are so many more people who love this than those who force themselves to hate.
The hate is coming from you and the Wokes very deliberately disrupt, dismantle, destroying Western culture and values of course. It's an awful vandalism aimed at mutilating, sterilizing, and murdering children because there are too many people on the planet this Woke cultural taint assault. Congratulations on being on the wrong side of history, harming the innocent and supporting the poisoning of young minds with evil Woke hate the OTHER agendas propagandized through media. Where is Galadriel's husband? Where is her daughter? Oh, that's right, she needs to touch the darkness by taking her brother's phallic object out into battle and committing a genocide against those who have wronged her in revenge. How silly that a family, a land living in peace, defense against aggression could get in the way of her awesome righteous anger and revenge quest taking the masculine role from the ineffectual conniving men. So very heroic, what a great role model for all the little girls. Remember you must first touch the darkness so you can know right from wrong little ones. Trash. Socially destructive identity politics hate mongering trash. You are on the wrong side.
I Love that You loved
Don't read if you enjoy the show. 😅
Yeah I just can't get behind the show. It's so bad. But that's just my opinion. I just know what it could have been and what the characters were like and most of them just feel like a downgrade. Absolutely nothing to do with the actors just the writing. It's just not good and so bland. But again it's my opinion and I won't crucify people for liking it. Although the only thing I hate is how they downgraded galadriel so damn much. And here she acts like a know nothing little child whereas in actuality at this time she had already been alive for thousands of years. Personally I really hope you don't look up anymore on any of these characters because you'll be disappointed.
I hope it's not Gandalf, Gandalf AND Hobbits in the 2nd age is too big a slap in the face, Gandalf didn't arrive on middle earth until over 1000yrs into the 3rd age - The only Wizards in the 2nd age were the Mysterious blue Wizards and with this show we can finally learn more about them. If they throw away this chance in favour of Gandalf I'd be pissed.
Sauron was never a man.
Did you said she’s young
I don’t think you watch it how you should be she is older than sun it means thousands of years old
Sorry, but we who did not agree with the values propagandized by this show absolutely did 'get it' from our own perspective informed by differences with your interpretation of Amazon Studios inventions to 'update for a modern audience' the original themes of the life's work of a very great author that IMO are being fundamentally philosophically retconned. These are not the same values in the same philosophical framework Tolkien ascribed to. Tolkien wrote stories from the perspective of a morality aimed at making the world a better place. IMO Amazon Studios very much deliberately wants to make the world worse for the majority of people alive for the aggrandizement, control, and benefit; to justify the empowerment the 'stakeholder' elite minority who are going to control everyone's choices since they are so very superior to the majority. Sorry you don't 'get it' from your perspective that the majority of Tolkien fans who absolutely are critical of these postmodernist elitist Vanguard Social Constructionist agendas have a legitimate gripe with postmodernist propaganda in a Tolkien skin suit Imon. Amazon Studios are not good people from the perspective of anything like Tolkien's moral framework, they don't want equality among happy successful citizens in charge of their own destiny and certainly do not want happy intact families raising healthy children. They do not, the postmodernists do not want goodness for the majority, they want disfunction and weakness, people unable to live outside obedience to the will of their supposed betters. The 'Hate' displayed around criticism of this show is about universally directed AT the critics by the show's defenders also from what I can tell too. Bad take Imon. Very dishonest characterization of this dynamic. Obviously I won't be supporting you as long as you choose to align with postmodernist 'disrupt, dismantle, destroy the nuclear family' evil. Hope you wake up one day and realize what this type of propaganda really is.
Naysayers/ loud majority are pretty much just upset about the changes to the source material. Pointing out that this is not Tolkien, it’s Amazon’s cash grab, and the very strange mindset of “if anyone dislikes rings of power then they’re sexist or racist period end of discussion, they’re opinions are not valid.”
A) No hate on Galadriel at all, it would have been awesome to have her as the lead… this wasn’t Galadriel though. The real Galadriel is much more awesome than whoever this was in the show.
B) The entire point of LOTR was a group of individuals from different backgrounds coming together and forming a FELLOWSHIP, it was already about our world.. this show just forced all the political and racial divide for whatever reason.. the real story that Tolkien created was much more diverse, much more socially aware and it was in a way that never divided anyone.. not like this show has done.
They didn’t do Tolkien justice. I wish they did.
Amazon ruined LoTR!
Everyone can like what they want, but it's not because someone don't like it that he's negative and not objective. There are a ton of great videos on youtube (some of them with very ironic titles), very interesting and objective, who show how bad this show is (for now), with very good arguments very well developed. It's visually beautiful, but the rest is bad, sometimes even awful. Most Tolkien/LOTR fans hate it, while they would all love to be positive and have a great LOTR show to watch and love. I like your reactions though.
A great video about the dialogue :
ua-cam.com/video/D3u-U3A8BOs/v-deo.html
That's not a "great video", it's someone saying that every line "makes no sense" without any arguments or reasons. Example: he can't figure out what the super simple sinking rock vs. sailing ship metaphor means, and then concludes that it doesn't make sense after he misinterprets it to be about literal rocks and literal boats. The dialogue was fantastic in this show, and everytime someone points at dialogue and claims it "makes no sense" that's because they didn't even bother to think about it...
@@andrew5500 Lol, he explains very well why it doens't makes any sense. If you want to talk about the video, at least watch it...And there are hundreds and hundreds of video that show how awful this season 1 is. If you think the dialogues are fantastic, i guess you never read any books, and that you don't even watch good shows and movies.
@@Laurent_08 I did watch, that's how I was able to explain an example of how his criticisms are far from "objective" and actually fall apart if you analyze them. The dialogue is way better than most shows and most movies. Some half-assed UA-cam video doesn't change that.
@@andrew5500 Lol, there are a ton of articles/videos, some of them by writers, that show how awful the dialogues are...And just watching the show should be enough to understand how bad it is. I guess you only watch shitty series/movies, probably a ton of Marvel Movies, to think "Rings Of Pover" = good writing...
Glad u enjoyed the show but it's a terrible adaptation of Tolkien's work. Characters are written terrible, the writing also has countradiction Elves don't need mithral to sustain their lives because they are eternal beings. Gandalf isn't even supposed to arrive as yet in middle Earth 🌎, he arrived in the third age after the first defeat of Sauron. Galadriel has been made into a villain that Sauron could deceive easily, she isn't the Lady of Light. So many things are wrong with this show, but as always great reaction.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. But from an overall standpoint... the show was just not good. Below average at best. Dialog was awful and contradictory half the time. The acting was cringey. (And I dont blame the actors and actresses. They could only do so much with the material they were given.) The characters just didn't match their personalities and they were mostly unlikable making it very hard to connect with them. The plot was too spread out, boring, and confusing. The mystery boxes were too obvious... People were able to guess who sauron was from the first scene he appeared. Majority of the things that happened in this season had nothing to do with the plot and could have been removed entirely to give more attention to what needed to have more focus. The implementation of physics was bad and what happened on screen was just unrealistic, even for a fantasy world. (The Hobbit had this issue too.) It may not be a deal breaker for some but all these issues added together is going to turn off most viewers. Not to take away from your experience... but im just saying the majority of the viewers and fans probably didn't like it for these reasons. The biggest problem the show had was the writing. Better writing would have made for a far better show and that's probably why people are so disappointed. It had so much potential and it just fell flat on its face. Good review though! I was wondering what people who enjoyed it were thinking! Its great to have your perspective as well. :)
Sorry did you say sauron was a man?
If this fanfic abomination will have 3-rd season, then humanity is lost
Wait wait wait...we like Isildur? Were we watching the same show? Aside from how god awful this show is, Isildur is written to be disliked. That was the intention of the writers.
Okay cool that you liked it but they don't care about Tolkien at all they didn't do him justice they spit in his face and we aren't the small minority it's the majority of Tolkien fans hate this show even if it had nothing to do with Lord of the Rings this show would still be bad. And to to all the writers/show runners of this show should be fired for someone who cares about the lore but this has nothing to do with any Tolkien story they have created Character Assassination to every character they touch
Get a life, smh
ive watched all the movies and watched them a lot when i was younger. i read into the second lord of the rings book and played some lord of the rings games. i liked this show. its based on the books. it doesnt have to be exactly the same, the same way the mcu is its own thing based on marvel comics.
@@commentor2013 this isn't a comic book this is a Novel and they sold the entire show on the premise that it was true to the books but the show is bad on top of being a bastardised depiction of his work and if they didn't want to use the characters in Tolkiens work then make your own world but they wanted to cash in on the work of people that actually care about story,lore,characters, etc. Like Tolkien and Jackson
@@Strife93 It couldn’t possibly have been “true” to the books (or sold as such) considering the sources for the second age are sparse and contradictory. Faithfulness here isn’t about lore details but capturing and reflecting Tolkien’s tone and themes - which RoP has done better than any other adaptation to date. Also - they’re working with the Tolkien Estate but sure, randos on YT care more about his legacy 🙄
@@anaw2579 no they aren't and they literally changed every character and I quote they said we always go to the books books books but the characters don't act like they should and it's not close to being Tolkien and your being really stupid if you think they made a better adaptation than Peter Jackson
This is not LotR.
It literally is lol
@@bombird8813 it kinda isn't since quite literally everything except for names has been made up and absolutely nothing is from Tolkiens writing
Cry more
I wish I could enjoy things like you, but this show is trash. It looks pretty, yes, but is such a bad adaptation...Gandalf isn't even supposed to be here yet lol
To be fair, there's no definitive canon on any of that. The foreword to all of the books released after Tolkien's passing explicitly say their from fragments of unfinished notes, often contradictory, and not to be taken as set in stone the way The Hobbit and LotR was.
@@anni.68 Even his time of arrival as Gandalf is debatable; most people accept the appendices Third Age date, but Tolkien also gave earlier dates in the notes that Christopher would publish. As Christopher warns in those books, JRR never made up his mind about a lot of these details
@@JBWinter there is TONS of definitive cannon on this. Just read the books.
@@danemiller4852 The books themselves, in their own forewords, say they are not to be taken as definitive, as they contain contradicting accounts and were not complete when JRR died
You re trash
I'm searching for hours for a positive review of ROP on youtube, until I found this. I'm starting to feel like an idiot that I loved the show. But I know I'm not alone, my wife loved it and all of our friends who cared enough to watch it, loved it. And we are not even the 'average' fans I guess, because not only are we huge fans of the Jackson films, but all of us have read at least Hobbit, LOTR and The Silmarillion, some of us have even read more of Tolkien books. And it's not just me and my friends! With all this hate coming from youtubers and 'reviewers ' and influencers, still the show has a 6.9 rating in IMDB, with 48,000 1's but 74,000 10's too, in fact, 105,561 people gave it a 6 or less and 164,637 people gave it a 7 or more. This tells ME, that a lot more people liked it, rather than disliked it. I just can't understand why this enormous hate for the show and why it is only the hate that is reflected on the internet. Could it be better? Sure. Is some of the dialogue below par? Sure. Where there some cringe moments? Sure, as there where in the films AND the books... Was it worth 1 billion dollars? I don't know, where the chopped up rights from the Tolkien estate worth 250 million? Was House of the dragon Better? I guess so, it depends. But is it terrible? Certainly not! Should it be cancelled? Absolutely not! Was it exciting? It sure was. Did it leave you wanting more? Hell yeah! It's really disappointing to see only the negativity coming forward and unfortunately Amazon is going to listen to the haters, maybe they already did and taking action to fix things may actually make them worse instead of better.
Sure, legitimate criticism is totally "hate", just like I'm sure your positive outlook on the show makes you a shill - both opinions are as stupid as each other.
Why do you strawman critics of ROP as "haters"? If you actually read the negative criticisms or watch in depth critical reviews then you could "understand this enormous hate" or perhaps learn what criticisms people might have with the show instead of scatter-shot characterizing all those real people entitled to voice their opinions and interpretation of the show as "haters". Do you think that flatly dismissive language makes you some sort of superior person? Do you feel better than people criticizing ROP when you call them all "haters" as if they don't speak intelligently about what they object to? It doesn't make you morally better or display superior intelligence on your part to dismiss all those people in that manner, it's pathetically inane name calling and reflects poorly back upon you. 'Me Tribe Amazon, You Tribe Tolkien, Me Tribe throw rock at You Tribe' Pathetic.
@@korycassel5197 Apparently being critical of the Sun rising in the West in episode 6 is now probably hate speech rather then pointing out something physically wrong and silly, who knew right? Might not have been so noticeable if there wasn't that load of hogwash on the boat in episode 5 i think it was.
@@Delogros There are just so many examples of things like that which simply aren't worthy in the sense of writing coherence of being associated with the care and thorough nature of the story crafted by one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time. It goes on and on the legitimate criticisms of technical mistakes and holes in this show and that doesn't even address the philosophy and moral framework being championed by ROP that has zero resemblance to anything Tolkien tried to convey in his mythos. But critics are all "haters"? It's just not Tolkien; this expounding about morally grey confusion recognizing good from evil and it's not aimed at laying out a mythos to underlie eternal archetypal ethos that people are even supposed to interpret. Confusion about morality is the point. The postmodern philosophy is aiming to disrupt, dismantle, destroy those old-fashioned notions that there is any such thing as any recognizable or legitimate morality and that's what ROP was always aiming to pollute Tolkien's legacy with IMO. But we're all just "haters". OKaaaaay. 🤐
Please, take off those glasses!!!